It's been about 1,5 weeks since I got back from a week-long workshop with accomplished artist Gavin Brooks near Tilghman Island, MD. With my friend-in-Art Cindy Reed, I spend five days painting 'en plein-air'. Gavin was an excellent instructor and had prepared a few theme-days, such as skies, trees & 
land and water & reflections. She gave a talk in the morning, illustrated her information with slides and demo's and afterwards, it was up to us to digest the new information into appealing studies from both slides and the real thing. The weather cooperated big time and we were able to do a lot of studying on site. And what a sight it was! Beautiful private properties on the water with lots of old barns, farm fields and marshy coves... what else could a painter wish for? Here are two small studies I did trying to incorporate some of Gavin's tips. The main thing she teaches is to use a limited pallette (yellow, red, blue and white) for more color harmony, together with some greys (warm & cool) to tone down the colors with. I never knew you could put so much grey into a painting and still have lots of color. It actually helps to make certain colors 'pop' if the surrounding areas are a bit more muted....what a discovery! You can make the warm light on a cloud even more exciting if the blue sky around it is not just blue, but a bit more greyish-blue. After five days, I came home tired but extremely inspired. Now, I've got to get to work and try to incorporate this new theory into my pieces. Visit this blog or my website again to see if you notice the difference!
land and water & reflections. She gave a talk in the morning, illustrated her information with slides and demo's and afterwards, it was up to us to digest the new information into appealing studies from both slides and the real thing. The weather cooperated big time and we were able to do a lot of studying on site. And what a sight it was! Beautiful private properties on the water with lots of old barns, farm fields and marshy coves... what else could a painter wish for? Here are two small studies I did trying to incorporate some of Gavin's tips. The main thing she teaches is to use a limited pallette (yellow, red, blue and white) for more color harmony, together with some greys (warm & cool) to tone down the colors with. I never knew you could put so much grey into a painting and still have lots of color. It actually helps to make certain colors 'pop' if the surrounding areas are a bit more muted....what a discovery! You can make the warm light on a cloud even more exciting if the blue sky around it is not just blue, but a bit more greyish-blue. After five days, I came home tired but extremely inspired. Now, I've got to get to work and try to incorporate this new theory into my pieces. Visit this blog or my website again to see if you notice the difference!
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